After I Proposed Breaking Off The Engagement, Don Regretted It Chapter 01
My fiancé, Silas Ferrante, was the king of New York’s underworld. His reach stretched across all of Latin America. Women flocked to his side without end.
I didn’t mind it. Every time my fiancé played with his side pieces, I played with their husbands.
Our marriage wasn’t about love. It was about power. So we’d always respected each other’s private lives.
Until the day he held his new lover and said, “Don’t go finding her fiancé this time. Ivy’s fiancé really loves her. After I break up with Ivy, she’ll need him to live. I’m only keeping Ivy for three months. Just stay quiet for three months.”
“If you’re jealous, you can get back at me.”
I choked.
Why didn’t you say that earlier?
I was already with someone else’s fiancé.
And he was pushing me to break up with Silas so he could become my new husband properly.
…
The day I brought home the marriage annulment papers, I accidentally walked in on Silas and his new mistress.
I really didn’t mean to.
After all, no matter how much Silas fooled around before, he’d never brought anyone home.
Ivy was pale as alabaster. Her eyes went wide when she saw me. Face burning with shame, she yanked a thin blanket over herself, like a frightened little rabbit, pure and innocent. Nothing like other women Silas used to go for.
Silas lit a cigarette, watching Ivy’s retreating back with lazy amusement.
“You see,” he said casually. “She’s timid. Scares easy. Don’t go finding her fiancé to play house with this time.”
“When her fiancé finds out, she’ll cry for sure. And I’m not in the mood to coax a little girl out of tears that won’t stop.”
“If you’re jealous, you can get back at me.”
I choked again. My lips parted, but nothing came out. Instead, I pulled the envelope from my bag and handed it over.
“Take a look. We can talk about anything that doesn’t work.”
Silas looked at my face as he took the envelope. His cold expression actually softened into something tender.
“No matter how fun she is, she’s just a toy. Not worth your tears.”
I blinked. Then I realized that he’d mistaken my hesitation for sadness.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I opened my mouth to explain. “Actually —”
CRASH!
A glass shattered upstairs.
Followed by a short, helpless scream.
Silas’s brow furrowed. He stood and headed for the stairs.
“Leave it. I’ll read it.”
His steps were urgent as he went to soothe his mistress, making whatever I wanted to say feel completely unnecessary.
I’d been about to say…
Actually, I came to call off the engagement between the Crowe family and the Ferrante family.
My engagement to Silas had always been a transaction.
He sent his men to protect me and went to war with my half-brother. In the end, I took full control of the Crowe family.
I stood by his side as his Donna and his Consigliere, feeding him careful advice for every decision. In the end, he turned the Ferrante family into the most feared mafia in New York’s underworld.
People stopped calling him Boss. They called him Don Ferrante.
We’d both reaped the rewards.
In the Ferrante family’s tower, I stood on the 28th floor, looking down at the beautiful New York skyline, and lit a cigarette with wild satisfaction.
Silas was smoking the same brand — expensive, niche. He raised an eyebrow. “What a coincidence, my Donna. Got a light?”
I looked up and gave a small smile.
The next second, he leaned in, cigarette between his lips.
The tips touched. Embers sparked.
Our eyes locked. Lust ignited.
My palms pressed helplessly against the massive floor-to-ceiling window. His broad hand covered mine completely. He pushed into me, strong and unyielding. Our fingers laced together. There was nowhere for me to run.
After that, Silas gave me everything a Donna deserved.
Tens of millions in stock. Luxury brand bags and jewelry, thrown at me like they cost nothing. He was good at sweet-talking me, too. I blamed it on his Italian blood.
I thought my years of secret longing had finally come true.
Until one day, I walked in on a woman straddling him.
She wore a short skirt, her heels kicked off on the table. She wrapped her arms around Silas and sneered at me: “Miss Marlowe, Don Ferrante’s pretty strong.”
“Fair’s fair, you can borrow my husband anytime, you know.”
Silas just lay there, eyes half-closed and lazy. No guilt whatsoever.
I understood what he wasn’t saying.
We were just a business arrangement. Our marriage wasn’t about love. So we shouldn’t interfere in each other’s private lives.
My nails dug into my palms. I had to breathe deep to keep my heart from shattering. A few seconds later, I forced a smile at Silas.
“Then I won’t hold back.”
That night, I took that woman’s husband to a hotel — one of Silas’s properties — and got a room.
From then on, whenever Silas played with a mistress, I silently played with her husband.
For years, we kept up that unspoken understanding. You could say we respected each other.
Until I overheard his friend teasing him. That’s when I realized I was just a clown.
“Silas, Marlowe spends all that money booking hotel rooms with other women’s husbands just to fake an affair. It’s almost sad. She pretends she doesn’t love you, but we all see it. She’s fucking crazy about you. She’s had a crush on you for years. Aren’t you afraid she’ll finally give up and find a real boyfriend?”
Silas’s face was half in shadow, somewhere in a private lounge. His voice was lazy and arrogant. “She won’t.”
So the crush I thought I’d hidden so well — they’d all known all along.
They knew I was faking being carefree.
They knew my “wild side” was just pride.
And my pain? Silas didn’t think it was worth caring about.
As an adult, I rarely lost control.
But that night, in that tower, facing the 28th-floor window, I poured myself drink after drink.
I had a one-night stand with a stranger. Came so hard I cried, actual tears. I was laughing and crying like a madwoman.
Turns out, love and lust really can be separate.
But what I didn’t expect — after just one one-night stand, that stranger wouldn’t let me go.
Caius kissed the back of my neck.
“Marlowe. Break up with him. Be with me.”